The future of…

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The future of tags

August 2000

Tags are just small data stores, whether they are address labels on a suitcase or a security badge. Until a decade ago, these were dumb devices, but now many contain electronics. Chips can already be built into smart cards, badges, security tags and so on, powered by induction. They may be unglamorous today, but as the world becomes more streamlined by the internet, tags will have a glorious future, with a central role linking the physical and the virtual.

In the same way as the computer became more useful once it was networked to others, we will see also that most of the really useful tag applications are where we use them to link physical things to network based information. The tag becomes just the physical end of a whole application based somewhere across the network. A wide variety of devices, buildings, tourist destinations and so on could benefit from having some built in information - when they were built, who owns them, local tourist information etc. Tags will soon offer this capability. Some could be stored in the tag permanently, other information brought across the network by means of the tag pointing or linking to a distant computer or web site.

Another possibility for tags is in tracking items. As a parcel enters a post room, its tag could be automatically read and its new position relayed to the company responsible for it. They can make it available to sender and receiver so that everyone know the whereabouts of a delivery. The smart tag might display new information as it enters each new area.

Smart tags might also be able to record their journey so that the receiver can verify where it has been and where a bottleneck occurred, even down to monitoring the G-forces applied to it so that poor handling can be identified.

If two or more tags are attached to a package, they could monitor each other's position continuously, raising an alarm when their relative position changes, which might indicate if the package were opened or squashed.

Position monitoring tags could also work in harmony to facilitate computer games. A golfer could practice his swing with his real clubs just by putting an appropriate tag on the club and on the ground nearby. Better still, the club would come with a tag built in, automatically measuring swing performance during a game for replay during coaching sessions. If tags were built into golf balls, it would make them a lot easier to find, and make cheating more difficult too. Security and safety systems will make extensive use of these capabilities too.

People wear tags for all sorts of reasons, (see the future of smart badges). They can monitor health, tell where we are, identify us to automatic systems and to each other, and store electronic cash. They can help us find someone interesting at a party, or automatically pay for our journey home. We could ensure that all of our mobile devices are registered with our ID tag so that they would not work if stolen, and our ID tag could makes sure it is being worn by the right person by measuring some biometric.

Simple date tags can be used to warn when something approaches the end of its life, or is coming up for a service. Others might have some chemical monitoring in them to identify when foodstuffs are reaching the end of their life. Tags could communicate with kitchen appliances, ensuring that they are cooked properly, and allow the home computer to recommend recipes based on what is actually in the kitchen.

Summarising, tags may be small and seemingly insignificant, but by linking physical objects to the intelligence in the network, they are a critical component in bringing the benefits of the net into the physical world.

(see also the future of portables & wearables)